The Haitian Revolution remains a shining testament to the indomitable will of an oppressed people to rise up and seize their freedom. Sparked by the ideals of liberty and equality from the French Revolution... ironically, a revolution birthed by a nation of slaveholders... enslaved Africans in the French colony of Saint Domingue broke their chains, organized with fierce determination, and overthrew the colonial regime. In 1804, Haiti emerged as the first Black republic and the only successful slave revolt in the Western Hemisphere to establish an independent nation. It shook the foundations of white supremacy, terrified slaveholding powers across the Americas, and served as a bold affirmation that Black people were not passive property but human beings with an undeniable right to freedom and self-determination.
But the French were not finished. In a vile twist of colonial hypocrisy, the very empire that was defeated by Haitian revolutionaries demanded compensation for its "losses." France insisted that Haiti pay reparations... not to the victims of slavery, but to the former slaveholders. That’s right: the enslavers demanded financial restitution for losing access to the human beings they had brutalized, exploited, and claimed as property. The amount? An extortionate 150 million gold francs, later “reduced” to 90 million. Haiti, with no real army, surrounded by hostile Western powers, had no choice but to comply. Over a span of 70 years, the fledgling Black republic paid what today amounts to over $560 million... a colossal sum that devastated Haiti’s economy for generations and ensured that its revolution would come at the cost of prosperity.
This grotesque ransom highlights the malevolence not only of France but of the global order that tolerated and enforced it. Nowhere is this injustice more starkly mirrored than in the United States. While Haiti was bled financially, African Americans were bled spiritually, physically, and economically for over 400 years. Enslaved Africans in America built the wealth of a nation brick by brick, crop by crop, body by body... yet no indemnity has ever been paid, no reparations delivered. By modern estimates, calculating unpaid wages, generational losses, and compound interest, the descendants of American slaves... some 41 million strong... are collectively owed more than $6.2 trillion. That amounts to approximately $151 million per descendant.
But the possibility of actual reparations remains a political non-starter. The hypocrisy is unbearable. Haitians were forced to pay their oppressors. African Americans are asked to forgive theirs. Meanwhile, the Black community continues to hemorrhage wealth... not through shackles, but through doctrine.
There are approximately 32.5 million Black Christians, the average monthly donation (on the low end) is roughly $100 per person. That’s $39 billion a year poured into a faith infrastructure that has rarely, if ever, returned that investment in tangible justice, education, economic empowerment, or political liberation.
Let the truth sink in: if that same $39 billion were redirected toward self-determined reparative investment, the Black community could theoretically fund its own reparations. No need for federal handouts. No need for permission. Just strategic sacrifice and collective discipline. And yet, even this pathway is obscured by generations of theological manipulation. The very faith institutions that provided spiritual refuge during slavery and segregation have, in many cases, become tools of pacification. Evangelical and Catholic forces alike continue to push a whitewashed, Eurocentric version of Christianity... propped up by billion-dollar ad campaigns designed to keep Black believers tethered to a colonial Christ.
This is no coincidence. It is the same pattern of psychological control repackaged in liturgical language. The same Rome that sanctioned slave ships now markets salvation. The same pulpits that once justified chains now preach tithes with empty promises of heavenly rewards. But how long can a people remain ensnared by their own loyalty?
The courage of the Haitians was not merely in their revolution... it was in their clarity. They recognized their oppressors for who they were and acted decisively. Meanwhile, Black Americans, despite centuries of brutality, have yet to claim what is rightfully theirs. And perhaps the bitterest irony is this: while we wait for reparations from the state, we continue to pay tribute to the same spiritual institutions that were complicit in our subjugation.
Freedom was never free. Haiti paid a ransom. Black America still pays in silence. The time has come to ask: how much longer will we pay for our own oppression? And more importantly... when will we finally stop?
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